The Etymology of Rus, Russia and the Varangian Guard

Want to tick off a Russian historian, just mention casually that the name Rus is a Scandinavian Viking name and the name Russia is the Greek (Byzantine) mispronunciation of this Viking term. The Byzantine used this name to describe the strange Viking warriors that would swim all the way South to the walls of the mighty Constantinople. Apropos to this discussion is Lars Brownworth’s post: Who were the Varangians? The fact of the matter is that the Vikings owned Russia the way they owned Normandy. Vikings founded the Rurik royal dynasty. The Varangians were similar but different from the Turkish Janissaries. The Varangians were the regular mercenaries but the Janissaries were formed from the Christian boys, sort of like the Cantonist draft in the Tsarist Russia. Janissaries were raised by Turks in a separate muslim cast as an elite army force. And ironically the Janissaries were the decisive in the fall of the Christian Roman Empire in Constantinople.

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Tagged as: byzantine, etymology, history, russia